Meet Stargazer
by Irrepressable
Summary: A story of love, friendship, adventure, and growing up among Decepticons.  A gift for CelestialDeth. I hope it is adequate. Rated T for a reason.
1. Chapter 1

**Well, here you go, CelestialDeth. You asked for it, so now here it is.**

~x~x~x~x~x~x~x~x~

D-Cal bit back a groan as she limped out of the repair bay. It had taken quite some convincing to get Hook to let her leave, but she had won in the end. Even through a visor, the 'the look' had still worked, though she had had to put extra effort into it, being as it was Hook she was dealing with.

She almost stumbled. She just hadn't yet gotten used to the change in her center of balance due to the loss of her wing-panels. The pain was incredible, but she kept her expression blank, refusing let it get in the way. Such was expected of a Decepticon. There was no place for weaklings in the ranks. Only the strong and the skilled survived. In her case, she wasn't very strong, at least not physically. That obviously came with her age and build. She was a very fast runner. Her accuracy was near perfect. The powerful shock absorbers in her joints allowed her to safely land on her feet from heights that would shatter the joints of some individuals. The same shock absorbers allowed her to move in near-complete silence. For all her attributes, however, she still had exceptionally weak armor. She was well aware of that fact. It furthered her determination to improve herself. Because she was not strong, she knew that she had to be exceptionally skilled to survive in the Decepticon ranks.

Laying that thought aside, she leaned against a wall for a brief respite. The twin seams on her back where the worst of her wounds had been welded shut felt as if they were burning. _'I can't give into the pain,'_ she reminded herself, _'It's a sign of weakness.'_

She gritted her dental components and pushed herself away from the wall, continuing her slow trek towards her destination.

-~-~-~-~-~-~

She was halfway there when she bumped into something big, metal, living, and purple. She gave a sigh of annoyance, thinking it was Astrotrain coming to harass her again. She looked up, prepared to throw a scathing comment at the larger 'con. To her surprise, the triple-changer she had bumped into was not Astrotrain but Blitzwing! Secretly, she was relieved. Blitzwing may be a total afthead, but of the three triple-changers, he was the only one who was at least borderline-civil to her. He also gave her a laugh on occasion when he actually said something funny. Granted, she wouldn't trust _any_ of the triple-changers with her life, she was at least able to tolerate him.

She barely came up to his chest, but she still wanted to see whatever it was that he was carrying. She was able to catch a glimpse of something green. She stepped aside and let Blitzwing pass.

Her injuries now forgotten, D-Cal followed the triple-changer, now absolutely intent on finding out what the green thing was. She followed him down the corridors, up and down lifts and stairwells, until they arrived in the cargo bay, where three clearly bored seekers were chatting. Blitzwing bent over and set something down at Starscream's feet, after which he promptly declared, "Megatron says she's your problem now." and walked away.

Now D-Cal was able to get a clear look at whatever it was, and 'it' turned out to be a green seeker winglet. The green youngling slowly swept her gaze across the three mature seekers, and then turned around to look at D-Cal. She could see that the green mini-seeker, a very young femme if her face was anything to go by, posessed optics that were a lighter shade of green than her armor. She cocked her head, watching D-Cal silently. And then, after the longest time, the unknown femmling opened her mouth and let out an insane-sounding laugh.

D-Cal leapt back in surprise, much to the amusement of the seekers, and yelled, "Primus' aft plates! What the fragging pit is THAT?!"

"That," Thundercracker grumbled, still amused at D-Cal's prior reaction, "is Stargazer."

~x~x~x~x~x~x~x~x~

**I really had fun writing this. I hope I managed to keep everyone reasonably in-character. **


	2. Chapter 2

**I felt that the initial story was too short, so I decided to make it a multi-part story. There was so much that I wanted to write, but I didn't really get a chance. ****I had nightmare last night, which basically covers the events of chapter 2.**** I also remembered a few pieces of important information that I forgot to add last time, such as D-Cal and Stargazer's respective ages. D-Cal is in the mid-adolescent stage in this story- basically the equivalent of approximately 15 or 16 years old. Stargazer's equivalent age probably falls somewhere in the range of 6 or 7 years old.  
**

~x~x~x~x~x~x~x~x~x~x~

Thundercracker watched with veiled amusement as D-Cal pouted and crossed her arms over her chest. Under normal circumstances, he viewed land-bound Cybertronians with contempt, being as they were inferior to himself and his aerial superiority. The young femme with the black armor and electric-blue decals, however, was a different story. Over the many years he had known her, the charismatic femme had somehow managed to wiggle her way into his spark. He was admittedly fond of her. The corner of his lip components lifted slightly in the barest of smiles. He reached over and patted her on the helm, right between her horns. He almost chuckled when she leaned into his hand and purred. She had come a long way since the time when the Decepticons had discovered her alone and completely feral on a strange planet, but there were some animalistic behaviors that she would probably never be rid of. She'd even picked up a few new ones from Ravage since the time when Megatron had assigned her training to Soundwave. In truth, Thundercracker wouldn't have been the least bit surprised if D-Cal had somehow managed to charm the stoic communications officer as well. The little femme was just too damn likable.

He looked at Starscream, who clearly hadn't expected to have another femmling thrust into his care. Only this time, however, he didn't have shared responsibility as he had when taking care of D-Cal. His only experience in caring for a sparkling was with D-Cal, whom once she stopped being so feral, became a loyal and well-behaved youngling. Screamer obviously had no idea what to do with a seeker winglet, especially one that didn't appear to be completely right in the head. He figured that the crafty air commander's ambition to succeed would work in his favor, just as it had when figuring out how to properly care for D-Cal. A thoughtful expression on his face, Starscream addressed D-Cal in a tone of voice reserved specifically for her. "D-Cal," he crooned, "Could you perhaps show our newest Decepticon around the _Nemesis_? You know, show her where things are and how things work around here?"

'_While he figures things out'_ Thundercracker mentally added.

D-Cal stood up straight and saluted Starscream. "Right away, Commander Starscream!" she declared enthusiastically. She walked over to Stargazer and took her by the arm. "Follow me," she instructed, "I'm going to show you the rest of the _Nemesis_."

* * *

"This area right here is the repair bay." D-Cal said, gesturing towards the aforementioned area, "It's where one gets fixed up when they get injured while fighting Autobots, or sometimes while fighting each-other or doing something incredibly stupid. Periodically, we each need to go in to get examined to make sure our parts are working properly. You know, checking our hardware to see if it's up to date, making sure that our firewalls are functional and we don't have any viruses, examining our parts and determining if any need replaced- you know, stuff like that."

While they were passing through the halls, they passed by a large, blue Decepticon with a red visor and a mask covering his face. He had a wide chest with a rectangular window in the center. Upon seeing him, D-Cal's expression brightened and she smiled radiantly at him. The heavily built mech glanced at D-Cal, acknowledging her presence, and continued to walk towards whatever destination he was headed to. "That's Soundwave. He's the communications officer. He's absolutely brilliant! He's also really strong. He can even read minds!" D-Cal gushed, obviously suffering from a serious case of hero worship; "He's the best instructor ever! He's really patient and never loses his temper. He has a squad of smaller Decepticons that can sometimes be found in his chest and he's probably the smartest Decepticon on board, aside from Lord Megatron."

She paused, her goofy smile not diminishing, and added, "Don't get on his bad side, though. If he wanted to, he could kill you with his mind."

Once she finished her introduction, she resumed their journey.

She continued to lead Stargazer through the corridors until they arrived in what could conceivably be called the 'mess hall'. She entered the large room, which was mostly deserted. "This is the 'mess hall'," the older femme declared, "The mess hall is where you report for your energon ration at the designated time."

* * *

Over the next few hours, D-Cal showed Stargazer all of the important areas onboard the _Nemesis_, until finally there were only a couple of things left to show her. The older femme led the younger to the outside of what was clearly someone's quarters. "This is Soundwave's quarters. Ravage, Laserbeak, Rumble, Frenzy, and a few others also stay here, and so do I."

D-Cal removed her personal data pad from subspace and used her stylus to scroll down a list to find what she was looking for. Stargazer peeked around the taller Decepticon and stood on tiptoe to get a better look. She then asked, "What are you doing?"

"I'm checking the crew manifest to find out where your quarters are." D-Cal explained. A few minutes later, she exclaimed, "Ah-ha! Found them! Follow me, Stargazer."

* * *

D-Cal led the younger femme to the outside of someone's quarters. "You'll be staying here for the time being. Like me, you will share your instructor's quarters- in your case, Starscream's. It's not quite prepared for you being as your being placed under Starscream's tutelage was only just decided. Someone will install a recharge berth for you in the near future."

She used the stylus to check off something on her data pad, and then announced, "All right, that looks like it for now."

She turned to face Stargazer to give her her next set of instructions. "We've gone over all the important areas, so it's probably time to check the duty roster. But first, it's time to refuel. C'mon, Stargazer. We'd best report for our energon rations."

D-Cal used her data pad to check the schedule before subspacing it and leading Stargazer to find the Decepticon air commander.

* * *

Astrotrain leaned against one of the walls in the 'mess hall', pleased that he had arrived first and sated after refueling. He heard the door make a 'whoosh' sound as it opened. He turned his head to watch whoever had entered. It was that lanky black femme with the horns and the blue decals. Oh, how he loathed her. He had detested her since the first time they met, when she laughed at the squeaky-pitched overlay in his voice. He also saw that she was being followed by that glitch-headed green seeker winglet. Irritatingly enough, her reaction to his voice in their first prior encounter had been the same as the femme's had been. He decide to ignore the youngling.

The femme, however, was another matter. D-Cal, if he recalled correctly, was her designation. He may have hated her, but he wasn't oblivious to the changes her body had undergone. His optics slowly moved over her body. Her hips were filling out, her figure becoming curvier. Her chassis had expanded and she now had a bit of a chest on her. Granted, she wasn't as… _busty_ as many other femmes he had known, but still…

He was growing more and more aware of the increasingly attractive and ever more hard to ignore femme. He leered at her predatorily and brought his gaze to the femme's red visor. She glanced at him, curious, as she had never received such a look from him before. Gathering himself up, he sauntered over to D-Cal and leaned against the wall as she seated herself at a table next to the winglet with two cubes of energon, one of which she handed to the youngling. Putting on an air of suaveness, he crooned to the femme, "Fancy seeing you here, D-Cal."

She looked up at him with a neutral expression and replied, "Well it _is_ the designated time for refueling, Astrotrain."

He swept his optics over her lean but still somewhat curvy figure. She noticed this and inquired, "Might I ask what you are looking at?"

Astrotrain smirked. He would charm her yet! He took her hand gently in his and lifted her to her feet. He then leaned over slightly and brought the femme's hand to his lips. She jumped ever so slightly, surprised at this change from his usual attitude but oblivious to the hidden meaning behind the action. "What-?" she gasped, pulling her hand away from his.

"You're becoming quite the beautiful femme, D-Cal." Astrotrain crooned, his tone almost sickly sweet.

Now completely baffled, D-Cal fumblingly replied, "Uh... thank you?"

His lecherous smirk widening, he continued, "Indeed. Your beauty has truly caught my optic. Pehaps you might join me later. I am certain you would enjoy my… company."

Scratching her helm, D-Cal stammered, "Um… what? I don't follow you."

Was she truly that clueless? Astrotrain wondered to himself. He frowned momentarily, but resumed his suave smirk. "Perhaps if I were to show you…"

D-Cal raised an optic ridge. "Show me what?"

Astrotrain flashed the femme a perverse sneer and grabbed her arms suddenly, pulling her against him and bringing his head down, crashing his lips against hers. The femme gave a muffled yelp and pushed him away forcefully. "WHAT THE FRAG WAS THAT FOR?" she snarled, balling her fists and glaring incredulously at him.

Now thoroughly miffed at being snubbed after his normally effective advances, he grabbed her by the arm and slammed against the wall. She was unable to contain a cry of pain as the still-healing welds on her back hit the hard surface. He put his hands on the wall on both sides of her head, effectively trapping the lanky wisp of a femme against the wall. His dental components were bared in a sneer. "You can act all innocent, femme," he snarled, "But I know what you secretly long for."

He grabbed her roughly by the chin and forced her to look at him. "You pretend to be oblivious, but you know as well as I do that you desire a mech's touch."

Stargazer, now very aware that something was wrong, threw herself at Astrotrain with a screech. The triple changer easily batted the femmling away. She crashed into a table, jarring her wings and impacting her head. Trying to shake off the pain, Stargazer lunged at him again. This time, he grabbed her by the scruff and threw her against another wall with a loud 'CRACK'. She curled up into a ball, too dizzy from pain and the blow to her head to move, a trickle of energon streaming down from the wound on her head. Astrotrain sneered hatefully at her and then returned his attention to the delectable little femme trapped between himself and the wall. "Wh-What do you want?" D-Cal cried, frightened and confused, her composure lost.

He leaned in close and whispered next to one of her audios, "You are not as innocent as you pretend to be, _D-Cal_, and you WILL be mine."

He slammed his lips against hers in a forced kiss once more. Growling in pleasure, he forced his way past her lips and ravaged the trembling and terrified young femme's mouth with his tongue. His rough hands searched her chest until they found a certain latch. He fumbled with it, hastily opening the hatch in her armor that protected her treasure of all treasures. Astrotrain did not notice the 'whoosh' of the door opening again, too intent on his attempting to forcefully 'seduce' the femme to pay any mind…

At least not until a panicked, gravelly voice, cried, "D-CAL!"

* * *

Astrotrain jerked his head around, looking to see the identity of whoever dared interrupt him! It was that blue seeker, Thundercracker, who had frozen in his steps, realizing just what he had stumbled upon. His momentary paralysis quickly passed, and not even a second later, he lunged at the triple-changer and grabbed him by the neck, yanking him away from the trapped femme with a mighty jerk and throwing him against the wall and seizing him by the throat. The seeker thrust his hand into Astrotrain's torso and forcefully jerked out a handful of wires and machinery, specifically the ones that relayed the synapses to the triple-changer's limbs and allowed him to move. Glaring coldly at the downed Astrotrain, Thundercracker released his neck and allowed him to fall to the floor with a crash. He then turned his attention to the femme he had come to consider his friend. She had slid down to the floor, leaning against the wall with her knees against her chest. He frowned distastefully. Her chest was open, her spark clearly in view. He walked over to her and knelt down in front of her. Her trembling had subsided a little, but she didn't look at him. In a voice tinged with such fear that it was painful to behold, she whispered, "Thundercracker?"

He noted with an angry grumble that part of her red visor had been damaged, revealing one of her gold optics. He set a large hand on one of her legs and murmured, "Oh, Deec…"

He carefully pushed her legs so that her bent knees lay on the ground and carefully closed plates in her chest to preserve her modesty. He slowly moved a large hand until it rested softly against her cheek. With the utmost gentleness, he turned her head so that she was facing him. Her exposed optic shined with some unnamed emotion and her lower lip trembled. Without warning, let out an agonized wail and threw herself at Thundercracker, wrapping her arms tightly around his neck. She buried her face into the crook of his neck and sobbed violently. Surprised by this action, Thundercracker tenatively put his arms around her., a little confused and very angry at the sight of the femme's reopened wounds. He was dead silent before, finally, he tentatively asked, "Did he…"

D-Cal shuddered harshly once more and whispered, "No. He wanted… and then you came…"

When her sobbing had subsided, she lifted her face from his shoulder a little bit and glanced at the injured youngling, who was by then out cold. She lifted her head up and looked him straight in the optics. "Stargazer… she needs to get to the repair bay."

Thundercracker glanced at the collapsed winglet. The seeker-in-training was not important to him, but how could he deny the pleading look that D-Cal was giving him? He sighed audibly and lifted D-Cal up, carrying her away from the scene of the violent encounter. He had become aware that she was rapidly losing energon from her reopened wounds, just as she had when she had first received them. He carefully shifted her so that the majority of her weight rested in one arm and he brought his free hand to his comm. "This is Thundercracker. We have an emergency in the 'mess hall'. Send someone to pick up Trainee Stargazer. I am currently en route to the repair bay with Trainee D-Cal. Thundercracker out."

Upon closing the comlink, he carefully shifted D-Cal to her prior position and carried her bridal-style swiftly towards his intended destination.


	3. Chapter 3

**From now on, I'm going to try to make all future chapters at least 1000 words long. This is going to be a more serious story than my drabbles. This chapter was partly written by CelestialDeth, who was nice enough to write part of the chapter. Don't worry, though! there will be sparkling!Stargazer-based cuteness soon enough! And with that said and done, enjoy chapter 3 of _Meet Stargazer_!**

* * *

**(This part of the chapter and the part of the chapter with Astrotrain were written by CelestialDeth.)**

Stargazer awoke much later than expected, but when she did, Starscream felt a wave of relief wash over him. Megatron would have been displeased if he managed to lose their new seeker. They didn t have many of them to begin with,

The femme blinked up at him, but she was different somehow. More stoic. More serious. Starscream had been too occupied with her change of presence, he failed to notice her change of appearance. There wasn t much, but even a youngling would notice that the once light green optics now pulsed blood red ..

* * *

Astrotrain grumbled to himself, trying to shake out the migraine in his helm. That blur seeker knew how to throw a punch. Something should be done with him if he were to get his servos on that femme, D-Cal.

He frowned. While he was at it, he might as well terminate that green pest. Starseer? Sunlooker? Whatever. It was a stupid name either way.

There was a light pitter-patter behind him, and Astrotrain turned to see the owner of the sound. No one. He shook his helm again. He really had to get rid of that migraine.

More pitter-patters. And then a flash. Astrotrain whipped around, he finally spotted her.

That green pest, Sunlooker, stood defiantly in front of him. That stupid goofy look on her face disappeared, replaced with a more rebellious frown. Her eyes, deep red? glowed ominously in the dark hallway.

Astrotrain let out a growl of annoyance, ready to spout out an insult, when the green seekerlet suddenly darted forward and attacked.

She was a blur of striking arms and legs. Her wings, underdeveloped, were not needed to keep her suspended in the air. She jumped, seemingly to have taken lessons from Ravage, off the floor and off Astrotrain himself.

But the attack were merely a distraction from the real vendetta.

Astrotrain wondered how she did it, or why he didn t notice at first, but spray painting him pink when she got close enough to his body to attack was pretty frelling clever.

What was even more impressive was the message she left on his aft:

**Touch D-Cal and DIE, AFTTRAIN **

Touché pest, touché.

* * *

**(This part was written by me.)**

_Many Cybertronian Weeks Later_

Thundercracker looked on as the now fully recovered D-Cal took out some practice drones. It had been quite a while since the incident in the 'mess hall', which it turned out D-Cal had no memory of, aside from occasional nightmares. The way some figured, the incident was likely too traumatic for her deal with remembering again, so her mind mostly firewalled the memory. He figured that it was probably a good thing. There were others, however, who WERE aware of the incident and did indeed remember it. Being as D-Cal was Soundwave's student, Megatron had left Astrotrain's punishment up to him. The end result wasn't pretty. Blitzwing was still ticked off at the other triple-changer, but not because he cared anything for D-Cal. It was a little-known fact that Blitzwing viewed the green-eyed seeker winglet as an adopted younger sister of sorts.

D-Cal obliterated another drone with a roundhouse kick to the head, and then leaped over another drone, boosting herself off its head, and spun around midair. A pair of curved shapes popped out from her forearm and a thin, glowing line appeared between them. A sharp, bolt-like projectile shot out from a tiny slot in her arm and slid into the bolt channel, where it was immediately discharged into the head of said drone. This all happened in less than an eighth of an astrosecond. The black and electric blue trainee shot bolt after bolt into the drones, all with remarkable speed and accuracy, until she landed gracefully on her feet. The crossbow snapped back into D-Cal's forearm as she reached for a blade that had slid out of a small compartment hidden in her hip. She squeezed the hilt and it lengthened into a pole, creating a naginata-like weapon. Using the pole-arm, she quickly dispatched the remaining drones with a series of swift and graceful attacks. To Thundercracker, D-Cal's attacks seemed to resemble a strange but graceful dance, as beautiful as it was deadly. A loud buzzer sounded, indicating that the simulation was over. The young femme's weapon retracted into a simple blade weapon with a 'click', after which she promptly returned it to its hiding place. She looked over at the blue seeker. "Time?" she inquired  
"256 and a half astroseconds," Thundercracker replied, "That's a quarter of an astrosecond off your previous record."  
"Slag," D-Cal pouted, folding her arms across her chest, "I must not have been practicing enough."  
_  
Yes_, Thundercracker mused, _she's back to her old self again._In the extensive time since 'the incident', everyone had been shocked to discover that D-Cal apparently possessed an immense aptitude for holo-engineering. The femme was currently designing a format for a holographic combat simulation in her free time. As soon as she was finished, she would show the program to Megatron and propose that the practice drones be replaced with a more logical simulation with customizable difficulty settings and various pre-programmed scenarios. But no, she was built for stealth, not for science. He knew such sentiment for another was not a trait that was generally approved in Decepticons, but he still cared for the girl. He hoped she would still be alright.


End file.
